


Forfeit

by Blue_Sparkle



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Party Games, Victorian England, Victorian style yearning and plausible deniability
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:08:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21834199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Sparkle/pseuds/Blue_Sparkle
Summary: Aziraphale decides to teach Crowley a few Victorian party games, and Crowley learns about sneaky ways to flirt within a society based on yearning and repression.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 35
Kudos: 208





	Forfeit

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr prompts "Teach me how to play" and "kiss me"

“You cannot possibly expect to participate in Lady Nordworth’s soiree without knowing a single party game! Why, you’ll be the talk of the evening and not for good reasons, my dear.”

Crowley rolled his eyes at his angel’s fussy objections. They had met up in Aziraphale’s bookshop to divide up the latest tasks and decide who ought to travel where. Crowley had volunteered to travel up to Manchester in exchange for Aziraphale taking a trip to Norfolk and as the conversation moved on Crowley had let slip his invitation to a party of fashionable young lords and ladies.

“They already believe I’m a captain and rich adventurer, I get to be eccentric, it’ll be fine,” he waved Aziraphale off but the angel insisted.

“These games are a chance to mingle and cause some goodnatured mischief. Humans are so terribly repressed these days, joining in will give you a good opportunity to use your wiles and catch them at a looser state.”

Crowley rolled his eyes again, refraining from pointing out how “terribly repressed” Aziraphale himself was these days. Of all the times to truly blend into human society his angel really had picked the reign of Queen Victoria and a whole new level of stuffy rules. But he did have a point about loosening up.

“Fine, teach me how to play.” 

Aziraphale beamed at Crowley and immediately set to explain.

“Good! Let us first learn of Forfeits before I move on to games. Losing is all part of the fun after all.”

They sat quietly as Aziraphale started explaining all sorts of games. All of them were something they’d need a good crowd for, so Crowley sat and listened. There were silly things, mostly a weird tease of flirtation (a chance to invoke lust and inspire humans into scandalous marriage?), and opportunity to speak frank (games in which one had to describe their ideal love and play at matchmaking). There were games such as Reverend Crawley’s (Aziraphale grinned at that and Crowley just muttered how it would make people injure themselves quickly), and Sardines (too much full body contact with too many people to seem fun). Forfeits were silly penalties as well, demanding answers to silly riddles or small actions to make a fool of oneself.

Crowley was still trying to memorise all of this when Aziraphale plucked a perfect white feather from the air, radiating holiness.

“Now to finish off, how about you practice a game we can do together? The loser’s Forfeit is to kiss his shadow.”

Aziraphale set the feather down on the now empty table.

“Blow the Feather. It’s quite simple, you blow and attempt to get the feather off the table without touching it. The one it falls closest to loses.”

“I still don’t see how this is anything more than a waste of time,” Crowley said but got ready. “It inspires some play and shenanigans, but it’s not that fun.”

“It is great fun, dear boy,” Aziraphale said gently. “It gives you plausible deniability to flirt and harmless romance within social constrains”

And then he was already leaning over to try and blow the feather over the edge. Crowley quickly intervened, blowing right back. It was surprisingly tricky to do this without using any sorts of magic, and Crowley kept glancing up at Aziraphale. His cheeks were flushed with effort and the way his lips pursed as he blew air didn’t bear thinking about. 

It was a minor miracle (not either of theirs) that Crowley managed to win despite the distraction. 

“I win. Guess you have to take a penalty.”

“I guess so,” Aziraphale said, eyes bright and blushing. 

Crowley stared at the angel and Aziraphale stared right back, glancing up bashfully.

“We agreed that the Forfeit is for the loser to kiss their shadow, did we not?”

Crowley nodded, confused, waiting for Aziraphale to do something. He squirmed under the intensity of the angelic gaze and his eyes wandered over to the lamp sitting on a shelf behind Aziraphale, making his pale white hair shine like a halo. It was right behind him, and they were sitting across one another and- _oh._

“Oh,” he said lamely. Aziraphale’s shadow was falling right on Crowley.

Aziraphale batted his lashes prettily and leaned forward, giving Crowley no choice but to scramble up and meet him in the middle. 

Petal soft lips brushed against his, warm and sweet and a lovely sigh escaped Aziraphale’s mouth, a sound Crowley took in greedily. It was chaste and only lasted a few moments but when they pulled apart Crowley was certain his heart might burst through his ribs.

“See?” Aziraphale asked coyly. “Humans do have such clever little games to get what they want.”

And Crowley couldn’t agree more, quietly vowing to reconsider his opinions about Victorian England altogether.

**Author's Note:**

> I immediately had the idea to combine these prompts in a game that has kissing in it, since the Gavotte also includes kissing. And while Victorian England had a lot of repressed behavior people did come up with sneaky way to live out their romantic (and horny) fantasies in a socially acceptable way. 
> 
> The games mentioned: 
> 
> Reverend Crawley's Game: People stand in a circle and grab somebody's hand. Only rule is it can't be the person next to you. Then everyone twist and shuffles and tries to untangle the circle. Can lead to injuries I assume. 
> 
> Sardines: Somebody hides and everyone else searches for them. Each time a person finds the hiding one they have to join in the hiding spot and squeeze together. This goes on until the last one standing finds the entire hidden group. 
> 
> Blow the Feather: as I described, there was also a variation with a ball of yarn.
> 
> A lot of games involved explaining who you'd marry or pretend to get married to one another based on character traits. There's also something like "kiss the gentleman you love without him knowing", for which the obvious solution is to kiss EVERY gentleman so nobody knows which one you were going for. 
> 
> Forfeits: If you lose at a party game you have to do something agreed on. A bit like truth and dare, might involve doing something silly like perform a specific action or kiss someone in a specific way. The "kiss your shadow" game is a good chance to try and insert yourself between your crush and their shadow. 
> 
> Crowley is responsible for Manchester according to the book, and Norwich has over 50 churches in its historical city centre so I figure Aziraphale would enjoy that. Also chocolate and fine fabrics.


End file.
